Featuring my thick and nuggy Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookies, these ice cream sandwiches are the stuff that summer dreams are made of. If you've ever had the Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Disneyland , you are going to LOVE these! These big and bold chocolate chip cookies are based on a recipe from my culinary school studies at Auguste Escoffier, but with a few modifications to give them that Jennuine touch. They make the perfectas book for a fat slice of real vanilla bean ice cream. And those mini chips? You just gotta have that extra cronch! Thank goodness this recipe only makes 8 sandwiches, otherwise I would be eating them for breakfast lunch and dinner. This way, my big family can help save me from my inner child diet-saboteur. Print With Image Without Image Chonky Boy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches Yield: 8 Author: Jenn Erickson Loaded with chocolate chips and buttery, brown-sugary vanilla flavor, these mall-sized cookies form a perfect partnership with a
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COOL BEANS! LEAN, GREEN, & PACKED WITH PROTEIN: EDAMAME PESTO
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Both of my girls were healthy, adventurous, excellent eaters when they were toddlers. With each birthday candle we add, at least 10 foods drop off the "WILL EAT" list. I'm looking forward to the day when the tides turn back in my culinary favor. So many wonderful, innovative recipes were born during those early days when the girls were little and I had all the time in the world to concoct new recipes to take on our frequent picnics!
One of my favorite creations from this period was born out my youngest daughter's early love of all foods green! Perhaps channeling some of her Greek ancestors, she would have been perfectly content to devour a plate of spinach laden Spanikopita every day. She was gaga for pasta with pesto, and preferred popping edamame (fresh soybeans) to any other little toddler sized snack.
One day, as I was preparing for a picnic -- edamame boiling away in one pot, and food processor out and ready to whir up a batch of pesto -- I discovered that about half of my basil had gone the way of slimy swamp grass. Improv time! The edamame were right there, calling my name. So, I added half of the pot to the food processor, along with my pesto ingredients, flicked the on-switch, and crossed my fingers. What resulted was a creamy, garlicky pesto sauce that was the perfect compliment, with a protein punch, for our pasta. The girls LOVED it!
As I said, the girls now turn their noses up at many of the things that they once loved as toddlers. Pesto and Spanikopita both got the ax many years ago. But just last week I was at Trader Joe's and noticed that they were selling whole edamame, still on the stalk, in their fresh produce department (pretty cool!). It reminded me of the edamame pesto I had made so many years ago, and I thought, perhaps, the girls were ready to give it another try. Unfortunately I never wrote the recipe down, so I tried to do the best I could from memory last night.
Because I had forgotten that the original creation only used half a bag of edamame, last night's experiment yielded an absolutely delicious, but very thick SPREAD. I busted out some French bread toast points, and treated the family to a wonderful little amuse bouche. The spread would be marvelous on toasted sourdough rounds, or on a sweet baguette for a picnic lunch. It would also be the perfect dip for a crudite!
Following is the recipe for the Edamame Pesto Spread. To make the creamy Edamame Pesto sauce for pasta, simply reduce the Edamame by half.
Our valley is simply bursting with wildflowers and foliage at this time of year. I've been making point of getting outside a little bit every day for for a nature walk around our property, identifying various flora and finding ways to use them to add beauty, whimsy and flavor to the foods my family enjoys. Enter: The Blue Fiesta Flower, a member of the Borage (Baraginaceae) family. These are larger than the Borage blossoms typically used for garnish, but they have a similar lemony-cucumber flavor with a touch of sweetness. They bloom March through May in Central through Southern California and as far South as Nevada and Western Arizona. They can be found on mountain slopes, streambanks, woodland, coastal bluff and desert scrubland. Contrary to their name, they are purple. To enjoy the Blue Fiesta Flower, gently wash in cold water before use. Remove the bit of bristly green just behind the petals (sepal & receptacle). Keep refrigerated if not using immedia
Who doesn't love a pie that you can eat with one hand while vacuuming, updating a resume, getting a child down for a nap, helping another child with a history report, and folding laundry with the other? Clearly, only people who don't like pie, and this isn't for them. This is for us: Pie People. For me, the pocket pie obsession started in childhood with the iconic, mouth scalding MacDonalds apple pies. If you were around in the 1970s, you'll remember: crisp & flaky, buttery & slightly salty, with blistered crusts that concealed a molten center of perfect apple pie filling. If you possessed the willpower to wait for the lava interior to cool, you were rewarded with the greatest American invention since the fast food burger AND the apple pie together, which in a weird sort of way, they were; after all, they were fried in beef fat. Those things were pure magic (or at least that's what my 6-year old self thought). These days, I'
When I was a kid, my favorite board game was CLUE . I loved the mystery, the intrigue and taking on the role of amateur sleuth. I've passed my love of the game down to my two girls, and I was excited when my youngest expressed an interest in having a CLUE party for her birthday this year. Here's what we did: The Invitations To set a dramatic tone for the party, I created invitations inspired by the playing cards from the original board game. The invitations came in two parts -- a Character Card that introduced the character assigned to the guest and a Party Card that included all the details for the party. To further link the party to the game, we glued a weapon piece from the board game to each party card (which we were able to purchase as a lot from Ebay). You can download the invitations for free below: Party Card, side A Party Card, side B * I created a mystery party experience that was child-friendly, and the kids all had a blast